Will a fund be set up for refugee services?

The state now has a Refugee Services Office, and new director Gerald Brown is hoping a state-managed Refugee Services Fund will also soon be in place.

The proposed special revenue fund would raise private funds to help train refugee community organizations and provide grants for refugee services.

"It's critical because government funding was never intended to cover all the costs," said Brown of the nation's refugee resettlement system, which was set up as a partnership between the federal government and nonprofit agencies.

Currently, refugee services in Utah are predominantly provided using federal funds. The state took a first step toward creating the private donation-driven fund Friday, when the House approved HB336 with a unanimous vote.

The bill now moves to the Senate, where sponsor Rep. Christopher Herrod, R-Provo, hopes it will gain the two-thirds support needed to take effect immediately.

"It allows people who want to, to voluntarily give money to the refugees," Herrod said. "There are donors. ... Monies are available as soon as the bill is signed."

Brown, who started at his post this last week, will head up the new Refugee Services Office in the Department of Workforce Services. The office was created using existing federal funds as a way to bolster the state's efforts to assist refugees. Traditionally, the state has just had one staffer to handle refugee services.

Brown has 25 years experience working with refugees, most recently for the Washington-based nonprofit Institute of Social and Economic Development, where he worked from Salt Lake.

"The goal of the office ... is effective integration so people feel at home, they feel safe and are contributing members of the community," Brown said. "We need capacity building for refugee community organizations. ... One of the best ways to help refugees is to help them build communities."

Another goal is to provide community centers where refugees can gather, and there needs to be more effective case management, he said. That's where the private funding will come in.

"Federal funding does not pay for anything except the first couple of months," Brown said. "That just doesn't cut it when you're talking about folks who aren't literate in their own language."

However, while they're helping in the private arena, lawmakers didn't make a $200,000 request by the governor for state funding to refugee services a priority in their budgeting process.